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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Organized Crime

23 February, 1999 - 00:00

Criminal Groups Linked With the State

And even have punitive detachments

Over 200 permanent organized criminal groups (OCGs) are currently engaged
in illegal activities in Ukraine. 49 of those have been formed exclusively
on an ethnic basis. Last year, 18 gangs were eliminated in Kyiv alone,
of which the most notorious are Vakhi, Issy, Husseina, Rizvana, Tsyroniana,
Dato, Dzhyny, as well as one Chinese and Vietnamese OCG, Deputy Internal
Affairs Minister Mykola Dzhyha announced at a briefing in the General Department
for Combating Organized Crime under the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

According to official data, in 1998 the Ukrainian law enforcement bodies
ceased the criminal activity of 1157 OCGs numbering 4856 gangsters. They
had committed over 9,000 crimes including 127 murders, 670 robberies, 468
acts of extortion, and 648 embezzlements of the state and collective property
in especially large amounts. 92 criminal cases were initiated under Ukrainian
Penal Code Article 69, classifying them as banditry. The most gangs were
exposed in the Crimea, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and
Khmelnytsky oblasts.

According to Mr. Dzhyha, almost all detected OCGs had possessed corruption-based
relations with the state authorities one way or another. Some had even
penal detachments at their disposal. In particular, said the Deputy Minister,
13 enforcers had been identified in Sevastopol, where they had terrorized
private traders into paying an established tribute. The bandits had been
also engaged in extortion, illegal weapons trafficking, and murder, including
for hire.

The assassination of Transcarpathian Oblast Council Deputy Tokar was
referred to as one of the most daring crimes. Three persons with Ukrainian
and Belarusian passports, involved in the murder, have been arrested. This
was possible due to the cooperation of Ukrainian law enforcement with special
police units of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Russia and Belarus.

Last year, anti-organized crime special units solved a total of 18 contract
murders, said Mr. Dzhyha. As to the assassination of Vadym Hetman, the
well-known Ukrainian banker, the law enforcement bodies "have come very
close to solving it." One version of this crime is associated with the
elections to the Ukrainian Parliament. Meanwhile, the girl who was arrested
recently for killing her father and robbing the dwelling of well-known
surgeon Shalimov, and was suspected of Hetman's murder, has turned out
"not to be the one." The militia keeps working hard, but nothing specific
has yet been found, said Mr. Dzhyha.

The official also stated that Ukrainian organized crime has become ever
more trans-border. The West associates Ukraine with illegal migration,
drug trafficking, and car theft.

Answering out correspondent's question whether the organized crime unit
works on solving crimes related to white slavery, Mr. Dzhyha said that
two criminal cases had been initiated based on the facts of selling young
girls. The offenders had carried out this illegal activity under the cover
of tourism and employment with prestigious Western modeling agencies. In
March 2000 the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior plans to sign international
agreements on mutual assistance with law enforcement bodies in 128 countries,
the department's Deputy Chairman Mykola Hryshchuk told The Day's
correspondent.

By Viktor VORONIUK, The Day

INCIDENTALLY

Agents of the Kherson division of the General Department for Combating
Organized Crime have arrested two women - Serbian citizen M. and Kherson
resident K. when they were trying to sell and convey two Ukrainian girls
to former Yugoslavia. Volodymyr Bedrykivsky, Chairman of the Department
for Combating International Organized Crime informed The Day's correspondent
that the dealers had been caught red-handed, when being paid for the "commodity"
quite a handsome fee in cash. According to Mr. Bedrykivsky, they initiated
criminal proceedings against the arrested women charged with trade in human
beings (Penal Code Article 124-1). The investigation has also established
that this case of selling Ukrainian girls is far from being the first in
M. and K.'s biographies. "The surveillance M. and K. were kept under gives
every reason to assert that these women supplied Serbian nightclubs and
casinos not only with young ladies, but even schoolgirls," said Mr. Bedrykivsky.
He is quite sure that after the Lviv, Odesa, and Transcarpathian cases
related to trading in women and children, this Kherson case will be just
as resounding.


 

 

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